4A
Friday, November 1, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Students must take lead in making recycling work
A recent comparison between the University of Kansas' recycling program and those at peer institutions revealed that not only does our school spend less money for recycling, but we also recycle fewer items.
According to an Oct. 24 article in the Kansan, the University is spending $32,500 this year to recycle white office paper, colored paper and computer paper. The University of Oregon, which began its program in 1990, is spending $215,000 this year to recycle white office paper, aluminum cans, plastic and cardboard. The University of Colorado, which began its program in 1976, is spending $250,000 this year to recycle newsprint, white office paper, cardboard, telephone books, magazines, organic materials, wooden pallets, motor oil and scrap metal.
The Graduate Teaching Assistant Coalition, KU Environs, Student Senate and Alpha Xi Delta are taking the lead in this effort. On Tuesday, the GTA Coalition purchased eight newspaper recycling bins. Student Senate, Environs and Alpha Xi Delta members are emptying the bins several times each week into the recycling center in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Granted, the University just began its recycling efforts this summer,and the program will undoubtedly improve with time.
But our University efforts pale in comparison to those of other institutions, and student and campus organizations must take the lead in recycling newspaper, aluminum and other items.
These groups should be applauded not only for recycling, but also for bringing environmental issues to light on this campus.
The cooperation they have shown is an excellent example for other campus organizations to follow.
NICOLE KENNEDY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
When students believe they haven't received their money's worth from a class, they should be entitled to a refund, under limited conditions.
Students should get refunds if courses aren't well-taught
This concept is justified because of the Board of Regents decision to implement linear tuition. Based on a free-market conception of paying for as much as you take, a linear system attempts to make tuition more fair. Arguments for and against linear tuition aside, a reciprocity now exists: Because students literally are paying for what they learn — by the hour then they should be entitled to ask for money back when the service wasn't provided.
Most students obviously do not expect to get their money back every time they are unhappy with a class.
"I think if students do not like the class then I have a problem with them just getting their money back," said Steven Miles, Lawrence junior. "If the University isn't providing the necessary services, it may be OK."
The accounting firm of T. Rowe Price Associates has estimated that the cost of attending college will more than double by 2010. Last year, The Christian Science Monitor projected that for a child born in 1995, total college costs at a public institution will exceed $100,000. Nationally, tuition in 1995 rose by 6 percent.
If the trend toward higher costs and per-credit-hour billing continues, then students deserve something in return. In the free market, if you buy something you do not like, you can either return it for a refund or not buy it again. The University should give students the power to exercise the latter option.
TOM MOORE FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
AMANDA TRAUGHBER
Editor
CRAIG LANG
Managing editor
MATT HOOD
Associate managing editor for design
KIMBERLY CRABTREE
CHARITY JEFFRIES
News editors
DARCI L. McLAIN
SARA ROSE
Public relations directors
RAGEN GERSCH
Business manager
HEALY SMART
Retail sales manager
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Campun ... Susanna Lloyd*
Jason Stratt
Amy McVey
Editorial ... John Collier
Nicolas Humry
Features ... Adam Ward
Artist ... Bill Potula
Associate sports ... Carlin Foster
Online editor ... David L. Teeks
Photo ... Rich Devinid
Graphics ... Neil Hewes
Andy Rohrbach
Special sections ... Amy McVey
Wine ... Debbie Staine
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Mark Osikm
Regional mgr ... Denise Haupt
Assistant Retail mgr ... Dena Centeno
National mgr ... Heather Valler
Production mgr ... Dan Kopo
Marketing director ... Lisa Quebbeman
Creative director ... Eric Johnson
Business manager ... Emily Schoch
Wachter Manager ... Wachter
Mass Impact mgr ... Dona Ploclotte
Internet mgr ... Steve Sanger
College students devour trends
Learning lacks substance for the intellectually trendy
from food to fashion, the cinema to cigars. We even have our own radio stations and music charts to cater to our tastes for the hip and the new. Our affinity for trends, however, is not limited to a desire to accumulate the superfluous amenities of college life, such as music and movies. We want to be trendy in the arena of ideas as well. And we are succeeding, at the expense of learning.
Those who are in the "in" crowd within the University culture subscribe to a few popular ideas: diversity, multiculturalism and tolerance. These ideas have their merit, but in our desire to be trendy, we have reduced these concepts to cliches. We often see some of these terms displayed on fliers around campus, but rarely do we stop to ask what these ideas mean and where they came from.
Our failure to ask such questions has resulted in a student body that is intellectually trendy — appearing smart but lacking in substance. Those responsible for this phenomenon are the academicians who market the ideas we buy. Their marketing trends changed when their view of the economy of ideas changed. In the old economy, ideas were treated as true or false, right or wrong, good or evil. The new economy rejects such absolutes as narrow-minded and suggests that people define truth for themselves.
STAFF COLUMNIST
This process began in Germany in the 19th century when philosophers began claiming that faith and reason were contradictions. A belief in absolutes required a completely irrational leap of faith, they argued. This belief then
led to the rise of a subjective relativism that dominates many of today's liberal arts disciplines, especially cultural anthropology, which preaches the mushy concept of cultural relativism. The idea of cultural relativism states that all cultures are equally valid and true. Also, it states no culture should impose its values on another equally valid culture.
This philosophy disintegrates when a person wants to condemn the former cultures of South African apartheid or Nazi Germany. Evil is an absolute, and absolutes have no place in cultural relativism. So if the majority of people in Nazi Germany supported the holocaust, the cultural relativist has no basis in his or her worldview to condemn this act.
No, I'm not saying that the American way is the only way. Society is a temporary institution. Therefore, any single culture is incapable of
being the grand interpreter of transcendent moral truth.
This erosion of common sense in the University culture has hurt students most. Academics have turned students into seekers of knowledge instead of seekers of truth. Professors complain that students treat universities as nothing more than diploma factories churning out pieces of paper that convey the appearance of learning without the actual learning. They also complain that college students are functionally illiterate.
Academics blame everyone from the Republicans to big business to television for these problems. But it is the academics themselves who are to blame. By replacing truth with subjectivity, academics have removed the students' impulse for learning. We practically are lobotomized, not functionally illiterate. Think about it. Professors encourage questioning, but what's the point in questioning if there are no definite answers to be found? And if you.do believe you have found an answer, you are vilified for being a narrow-minded absolutist. Why seek anything but knowledge?
If academics want to truly educate students instead of aiding them in their intellectual trendiness, they should acknowledge the fact that we don't define the truth, the truth defines us.
John Hart is a Shawne graduate student in Journalism.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Zeta Beta Tau story lacked credibility
In response to the Oct. 22 article on the front page of the Kansan, I am worried whether this newspaper staff is competent enough to write a real newsworthy article.
"Fraternity denies hazing allegations" doesn't relate even remotely to the content of the article, nor is it front-page page. This article is two columns long, yet vaguely describes the hazing allegations of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity until the middle of the
What relevancy do the president's grades have with hazing; how does this information serve you or me, and what is it doing on the front page of the Kansan?
first column. The rest of the article discusses the chapter president's grades as being too low for him to participate in the fraternity.
what importance is this article?
There is no update from the last article printed about this fraternity. So what is the purpose?
Does the Kansan print the grades of football and basketball players or the grades of the Student Senate? I don't think so. Is there not any more news on campus that the Kansan must print the Zeta Beta Tau president's grades on the front page? Also,
It makes one think that because there was no update, no apparent purpose and shoddy reporting that the Kansan had some other motive in printing this article. In the future, it would be nice if sensational titles were followed by sensational articles.
Doug Evans
Lenexa sophomore
Voters'choice will be between lesser of evils
The election seems only moments away. TV advertisements fill the airwaves, politicians' faces fill the newspapers and the smell of victory is in the air. So, just days before the election, the time has come to add my two cents about some of the more important races.
more important. President Clinton and Citizen Dole are fighting to be the most powerful man in the free world. Clinton is winning by about a 20-point margin, according to the latest ABC News tracking poll, and has been for some time. The margin is so large that I
STAFF
COLUMNIST
think the president could shoot and kill Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Strug, the gymnastics hero who captured the hearts of millions of viewers with her courageous vault, and still win. Not only could he kill her, but he also could do it on national television in front of millions of
viewers and gain five points in the polls for it. I really do not think much else needs to be said about the presidential election. It has been finished for weeks now.
nimpson also leaves much to be desired. I did not want to vote for Roberts, and I furthermore wanted to be an informed voter, so I attended her speech at the University. This was a bad move on my part, because now I need to find some nice third party candidate for whom I can vote.
More important at this point are the elections for the Kansas seats in the U.S. Senate. My favorite race to watch and belittle is the race for Nancy Kassebaum's seat. The two major party candidates fall short of anything one would hope for in a replacement for Kassebaum. That is sad.
Pat Roberts has been a congressman for more than 30 years. He is a die-hard Republican and has done some good things for Kansas farmers. He also is rather mean to his female opponent. His latest transgression has been to call his main opponent, State Treasurer Sally Thompson, a "bitch." While this was a comment made only to his son, he unlucky enough that a Kansas City Star reporter was within hearing range. Oops.
I don't disagree with Thompson. On the contrary, we have many opinions in common. However, I am somewhat idealistic, and I do not believe that all my opinions would realistically work. In her speech, Thompson clearly believed that her idealistic answers, which basically amounted to educating everyone to solve any problem, were the right answers. She seemed to ignore some of the basic problems. And I now agree with Roberts when he says that she does not have the experience to represent Kansas in Washington.
The most interesting election this year is the race to fill Bob Dole's Senate seat. Jill Docking and Sam Brownback have made this race downright entertaining. Docking, the underdog from the outset, has run a successful campaign in which she has made the ultra-conservative Brownback worry enough to fight fairly hard. Unfortunately, Brownback will win, I think, but nonetheless, watching him squirm has been fun.
This year's election leaves much to be desired. I truly feel that I need to go out and vote against many candidates rather than voting for their opponents. Although it has been annoying at times, it has mostly just been fun. So I plan to use my vote against the candidates to the fullest.
Stacey Nagy is a Topica Junior in Rustlan and Nancy's studies.
FATE
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By Shawn Trimble